Dreaming of Dragons
by enderfly
Summary: 20 years after King Daystar began his reign, most of the world was wiped out by a mysterious force. Now, 300 years later... (read the rest of the intro in the story! chapter 2 added! yey!)
1. The Wrath of History Teachers

DISCLAIMER: the setting is not mine, and some of the characters are not mine. i admit it!! however, some of the characters are mine, so ask if you want to use them, or the concept behind this fic. um, i make no money off of this. really. um, but i could use some. ..please?  
  
--  
  
20 years after King Daystar began his reign, most of the world was wiped out by a mysterious force. Now, 300 years later, a young girl stricken by dreams of the land that used to be is entwined by fate to dig up the remnants of the Enchanted Forest, and the story of it's destruction.  
  
Dreaming of Dragons  
By Ender Casteleyn  
  
Chapter One: In Which Nerumi Braves the Divine Wrath of History Teachers  
  
Dragons in the mountains. The distant thumping of wings beating hard against solid air... or was that the sound of a war drum? Perhaps only the pulse of her dreaming heart. Nerumi woke with a start, ears still pounding from the rhythmic beat of her reoccurring dream. For weeks the same vision had haunted her in sleep; visions of wizards, dragons, elves, giants, dwarves... legendary creatures only seldom read about in history books, considered sinful to even mention otherwise... and then nothing. A soft 'whoosh' and a blinding white light, and then nothing. Nerumi didn't know what to make of the dream. In fact, it scared her so much, she had never even thought much of it after it was over and done with. Ignorance is bliss, she'd tell herself.  
  
Shaking her head to clear vision of the white spots that danced in front of her, she reluctantly began to leave the confines of her warm bed to brave the cold of her room. She rose, and stood to stare at herself in the looking glass; somewhat of a morning ritual to Nerumi. She was a bit short, five foot three inches when last measured, with a somewhat medium build. Her hands were still too big, she noted, and her legs too long. Sighing, she came to the decision that she might be considered shapely either by waiting a few years or with the right lighting and a good, tight corset, but for now her sixteen year old body wasn't quite up to it. Glancing at her face, vaguely emotional green-grey eyes stared back at her. Their almond shape could be considered beautiful, but other than that they were quite plain. To put it simply, her eyes were the most extraordinary thing about Nerumi. Her face was well proportioned, true, framed by somewhat stylishly cut dark red hair, but she was truly quite average. No, she was definitely not beautiful. However, she was not ugly either. Simply Nerumi, she thought to herself with a short nod, and that's the way I like it.  
  
After hastily throwing on an old, dingy tunic and her fourth best pair of leggings, all the while pondering what to do with her dream, she came to a decision. She would seek clarification from her brother's history tutor, who lived only a few houses over. Two mismatched socks and some holey (though quite unreligious) boots later, she was out the door.  
  
What business have you with me," a large book in a very dusty corner with two bushy eyebrows and a frighteningly receding hairline demanded.  
  
I am Nerumi Yantha. You tutor my brother, and I have a few questions I need answered. Figured you could help, right? Considering you know how to read 'n stuff." The eyebrows raised a bit, and the book lowered, revealing filmy gray eyes surrounded by mounds of wrinkled flesh. Had she not been as tired as she was, Nerumi would have made a face. A very disgusted face.  
  
Yantha, is it? Pity you're female, if you take at all after your brother, you might have been a scholar."  
  
My brother and me aren't related. About my question?"  
  
My brother and I," The book lowered completely. Nerumi wished it hadn't. She shifted a bit where she stood, the bitter taste of the retort she had wanted to make lingering on her tongue. Being rude wasn't going to get her questions answered, she decided, so she may as well be silent and hope His Highness of the Historical Knowledge didn't croak before she knew all she needed to.  
  
The man in the corner sighed, seeming to signal that he would listen to her questions.  
  
I was just wondering... wondering what happened to, well, the... er, the Enchanted Forest." Nerumi winced preemptively for the blow she knew was coming. It didn't. Surprised, she opened one eye. She regretted it almost instantly; the man's ancient flesh was red as a ripe tomato, and his yellowed fingernails were digging into the hard oak of his desk.  
  
You dare speak of such a thing, and so lightly! Yaida, blessed be he who resides over the Afterplanes, forbids us to speak of a time when such... such... magic was used, unless to warn us of it's reciprocation! If you went to morning lectures more often you would know all that is needed to be known about That Place: it is evil. Magic is evil. The rest need not even be said! In That Place, Queens had as much power as Kings, mere witches were used to aide in the ruling of the Kingdom, and magic! The whole place was crawling with magic!"  
  
Yes yes, of course." Nerumi shifted again. "So then, how was it destroyed?"  
  
Young lady, I certainly hope your father whips you nightly for your ignorance of The Ways. Yaida destroyed That Place, along with every last one of it's inhabitants." The Old One raised his eyebrow again, as if daring her to question further.  
  
She dared.  
  
Even the dragons?"  
  
The tomato burst.  
  
"OUT."  
  
She outed.  
  
--  
  
thus ends the first chapter of my very first fanfiction! the inspiration for this came from a really good harry potter fanfic, where it used the setting of the original books, but with mostly new characters. i thought it was very original! so, look forward to seeing a few familiar faces (morwen and telemain, most likely, but probably no cimorene or mendanbar, sorry! i don't know - we'll see how it ends up going) as well as a few new ones!  
  
look forward to the next chapter! 


	2. Extensive Climbing

DISCLAIMER: the setting is not mine (the enchanted forest, that is... new yaisa is MINE MINE MINE!), and some of the characters are not mine. i admit it!! however, some of the characters arrrre mine, so ask if you want to use them, or the concept behind this fic. um, i make no money off of this. really. um, but i could use some. ..please? --  
  
20 years after King Daystar began his reign, most of the world was wiped out by a mysterious force. Now, 300 years later, a young girl stricken by dreams of the land that used to be is entwined by fate to dig up the remnants of the Enchanted Forest, and the story of it's destruction.  
  
Dreaming of Dragons By Ender Casteleyn  
  
Chapter Two: In Which There Is Some Extensive Climbing  
  
Nerumi shut the door quietly behind her, turning to lean her back against the cold, hard wood and letting out a small sigh of frustration. Yes, she knew that "magic was evil" and "females are evil" and everything-in-life- one-could-possibly-think-of-as-remotely-interesting was evil, evil, evil. She didn't care what was evil and what wasn't, according to the all powerful Yaida hierarchy. She wanted answers. There were so many questions spinning around in her head that Nerumi thought she would explode quite soon if she didn't get the information she sought. One such question was where to look for answers for all of her other questions! She was confused, and annoyed, and just generally put off by the world.  
  
She sighed again.  
  
"Well... no point in stayed here," she mumbled to herself, beginning the long journey down the impressively tedious stairwell in front of the Historian's mansion.  
  
"If he won't answer questions," Nerumi thought out loud, "who will? Historians are the only people who can even mention the Forest without flinching very much... I suppose I could ask my brother, but he'd much rather hit me than talk to me." She scowled at the thought. "At least we're not related." That made her feel marginally better.  
  
She glanced up briefly from staring at her feet, as was required of most women in the presence of men, and her eye caught on to the tall, dark form of a crumbling tower that had been a part of the city as long as anyone could remember. It seemed very out of place - New Yaisan preferred smooth, elegant architecture; the kind that made Nerumi think of cold metal and colder people. This tower, however, was formed of stone blocks, stacked on top of each other and stuck together with some sort of whitish substance Nerumi had never seen before.  
  
"How strange..." She averted her eyes just in time to keep her gaze from a passing man, and made her way toward the tower.  
  
It was obvious that it hadn't been cared for in years, much to Nerumi's amazement (for buildings in New Yaisa were taken better care of than it's people). Stones were crumbling, and a green, spongy substance seemed to be - yes, it was! - growing everywhere. Growing! Nerumi had to push her own jaw shut. Nothing grew in New Yaisa! It was a city of steel and stone, old, hard wood and harder people, not a tree or a flower in sight that wasn't immediately torn asunder and crushed underneath the boot of a passing businessman. Eyes huge with wonder, Nerumi slowly reached out to touch the green...  
  
Dragons in the mountains.  
  
Her hand recoiled, as if shocked, ears pounding as fast as her heart. Nerumi rubbed her now throbbing head, not even noticing the greenish glow emanating from inside the tower. She took a closer look, taking notice of the strange staircase on the outside of the tower, winding all the way up to the only visible doorway; six flights up.  
  
"That's odd," Nerumi mused, peering through many holes in the base of the tower and catching a glimpse of what looked like some ancient torture device. "Whoever used this dungeon would have to climb up six flights of stairs to get to it! Absolutely bizarre.." Her feet took her slowly up the crumbling steps to the sixth-floor doorway; a long climb that passed far too quickly. Nerumi cautiously poked her head into the opening where she presumed a door must have been.  
  
Green. Everywhere green! The plant she had touched earlier was all over the walls and floor, radiating a clean, pure feeling. Nerumi felt, for once in her life, whole. The feeling of emptiness she had taken as normal in her everyday life was replaced by a feeling of completion, of bliss. It was as if she could almost reach out and grab a strand of pure happiness from the air. Smiling to herself, almost laughing at the idea of actually touching a piece of the air, she experimentally reached up, and pulled--  
  
A soft 'whoosh' and a blinding white light, and then... nothing.  
  
-- whew! well, what do you think? intrigued!? don't worry folks, you'll find out more and more about nerumi, her family, her life, and new yaisa as the story progresses (in case you're wondering...) thanks for the reviews!! keep 'em coming, folks! oh, and i tried to figure out why ff.net stole half of my quotation marks in the first chapter (grr), so... we'll see if what i did differently this time worked. whee!  
  
~ender "i am poor." 


End file.
